Late cancellations of the Dan Cramer/Jeremy Kimball and Andrey Koreshkov/Sam Oropeza tournament bouts have intensified the focus on Mikkel Parlo’s catchweight fight with Johnny Cisneros at Bellator 115.
Parlo, a Danish fighter who is a usual customer at middleweight, has amassed an 11-2 professional record, with seven of those victories coming by way of strikes.
Parlo’s most recent success in the sport came in last season’s middleweight tournament, which saw him advance to the finals with decision victories over Brian Rogers and Jason Butcher, but he was unable to earn a title shot, losing in the finals via knockout to Brennan Ward.
One of the major lessons that the Dane took from the loss was how important rest during a Bellator tournament.
“That tournament was a good learning experience for me because I think I trained too much for the last two fights,” said Mikkel Parlo. “In the future, I’ll take more rest between fights because I felt like I was burned out at the end of the tournament.”
Aside from hardening his craft in professional fights, the 23-year-old has also advanced his game recently be training full time in the United States.
“Over here in the US, there’s just a lot more guys. There’s also a lot more space; bigger gyms and we train in cages, and there’s usually two to three coaches watching practice and helping out,” said Parlo. “To be honest, the biggest difference is that the wrestling level is very high over here.”
In the lead-up to his fight with Johnny Cisneros, Mikkel Parlo has found a few clips of Cisneros’ past fights and analyzed them to figure out his strengths and weaknesses.
“He looks like he’s got a lot of heart and fight in him. He looks like he’s primarily a boxer, but he does throw a few kicks. Boxing seems to be his biggest strength but he’s also very aggressive.”
Although Parlo described himself as a counter-fighter, he wouldn’t be surprised if his fight with Cisneros turns into a brawl from time to time due to Cisneros’ aggressive fighting style.
The fight with Johnny Cisneros at Bellator 115 is the top MMA-related priority for Mikkel Parlo right now, but he still has an eye towards his future goals as a fighter.
“My goal has always been to become the champion, and I really believe that’s a possibility for me,” he said. I keep growing and I’m becoming a totally different fighter and person, which puts me one step closer to that goal. I just want to get in there and show the world what I can do.”